Steven Hollon
Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor, Department of Psychology
Professor, Department of Psychology and Human Development
Professor, Department of Psychiatry
Research Interests: Steven Hollon’s work focuses on the nature and treatment of depression. What his team has shown is that the cognitive and behavioral interventions can be as efficacious as and more enduring than antidepressant medications (the current standard). Recent work coming from evolutionary biology (especially Paul Andrews at McMaster University) suggests that depression may be an evolved adaptation that facilitated rumination about complex social problems until they are brought to resolution and suggests that antidepressant medications may relieve distress at the expense increasing risk for relapse following termination so as to make them difficult to discontinue.
Keywords: Clinical depression, cognitive behavior therapy, antidepressant medications